London Vacation 2012 – Day 7

Our last full day in London was nice since we got out of central London and took a train to Hampton Court in the first half of the day. We then finally got a chance to see inside of Westminister Abbey.

We took the tube to Waterloo Station, waited for our train that ends up at Hampton Court (East Molesey) and we were on our way. The train was practically empty and really easy to figure out. Took about 35 minutes to get there and was a nice train ride. Our Oyster cards worked for this train too so it made things easier but this is a very doable half day trip if you wanted to do it. Beats having to have a tour company bring you to Hampton Court.

The tour of the Palace and the gardens is done by yourself via an audio guide. Instead of headphones, you would just hold up the thing to ear like a phone. Made it kind of annoying honestly. But it was really nice walking around the Palace. Of course Kristen and I got lost a few times and went through sections backwards. At one point there was a big fire going in the kitchen, I felt like staying there all day since it was a chilly that day. But I’ll take cold & sunny over rain anyday.

The school trips began flowing into the palace shortly after we got there. I don’t know what it is about British children, but whenever I encounter them at places like this, they are FREAKIN’ LOUD. It’s like releasing a bunch of caged animals haha. But anyway, after the palace, we walked around the gardens a little bit. The grounds are so well maintained, even when there’s frost on the ground. I bet the gardens look beautiful in the summer time because they looked great during Fall/Winter time. We wanted to make it back to London at a decent time so we got on the train and headed towards Westminster.

We managed to get into Westminster Abbey and toured that close to closing time. Couldn’t take pictures inside but it was neat to see all the tombs of the Kings and Queens, etc. Very impressive inside and something that should be at least seen once. There was an audio guide in there as well, narrated by go-to-narrator Jeremy Irons. Morgan Freeman must have been busy that day. After the Abbey, we walked around Leicester Square one last time and I managed to get a cap I was looking for. It wasn’t as nice as the expensive (80 pounds!) hat I saw previously in the night but there was no way I was paying that price. I did think about it for a second though haha. We finished the trip off right with macaroons from Ladurée. We loved them so much in Paris last year that it was hard to pass up again…even though they have a location in NYC haha.

Our hotel Chesterfield Mayfair also gave us a farewell cupcake as well. I highly recommend staying at that hotel! Despite not getting us into the hotel early like I wanted, they were great!

The following day we had breakfast one more time at the Breakfast Club in Soho. I doodled a cartoon of me saying “GREAT HOT CHOCOLATE!” on a napkin and gave them it since they had other things on the wall. Hope it made the wall (I think it did)! If you’re there in London (at the Soho location), let me know if you see the drawing!

That’s it for London, hope you enjoyed the blog posts!

Check out my favorite shots:

Cousin IT with glasses! haha

See the Entire Gallery Below:

Buy Prints or License:

If you’re interested in purchasing prints or licensing these photos, be sure to contact me at bryan@skapunkphotos.com I’m currently trying to save up for a new camera so any little bit helps!

About the Photographer

SkaPunkPhotos.com is a photography website & blog, featuring the music & travel photography of Bryan Kremkau. Bryan is a professional & experienced concert/music photographer based out of Jersey City, NJ and has been shooting concerts for over 16 years now.